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Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Vineyard Hotel & Spa's annual pruning event, in the Vineyard Hotel’s vineyards on the banks of the Liesbeek

As "esteemed friends" of the Vineyard Hotel & Spa, we were invited to the Vineyard's annual pruning event, taking place in the Vineyard Hotel’s own vineyards on the banks of the Liesbeek River on Saturday, 11th of August.

Saturdays are very important working days for us, and Lynne was kind enough to let John join the pruning party while she manned our stand at the Neighbourgoods Market. We were welcomed with glasses of Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel and delicious canapés.

The steeply terraced vineyard of 40 Semillon and 60 Sauvignon Blanc vines on the banks of the Liesbeek River is sponsored by Klein Constantia, Meerlust, Simonsig, Warwick and Waterford wine estates. After all the rain, the river was flowing strongly.

The vineyard was planted four years ago. Youth and too much shade from the surrounding trees have not helped the vineyard to produce the desired quality, but the participating winemakers can be expected to contribute their skills for the first vintage next year. One of the biggest trees fell into the river in last week’s storm, which will help.

We were all given blue plastic ponchos to shield us from the rain, and we took advantage of a lull in the downpour to take the secateurs and start cutting.

Roy Davies, the Vineyard's GM welcomed us

and Simonsig Estate’s viticulturist Francois Malan gave a short demo and explained the art of pruning.

Ginette de Fleuriot, Vina Ballerina

The Square's F&B Duty Manager David Wibberley with some strange looking bubbly

Tweeters: artist Luan Nel

and Matt Dietchmann, The Vineyard Hotel's Food & Beverage Manager

Wine writer Neil Pendock, with secateurs at the ready

Visitors Johan & Wendy Dreyer from Port Elizabeth, who bought a Bid or Buy charity package to be there.

Norma Ratcliffe, the esteemed mistress of Warwick Estate

Wendy Masters, Mrs Petousis and Sheila Banner

Wine and food writer and judge, Greg Landman

GM Roy Davies, getting on with the task

Pruning in full swing, while it lasted

Before all the vines could be pruned, the heavy rain started again and Francois said we should stop. Pruning in the rain can lead to a syndrome winemakers call tandpyn (toothache). He told us that it destroyed the Wellington apricot orchards in the sixties.

So we all rushed back through the gardens, at the foot of Table Mountain, for a celebratory lunch in The Square, hosted by Roy Davies.
How many other cities are this beautiful?

Samm and his colleagues brought us more delicious canapés before lunch

Lunch was served with wines from the participating farms

in the upper section of The Square

and introduced by our host, Roy Davies

Starter: Grilled Norwegian salmon with potato vinaigrette, radish and mange tout salad, dill aioli

Main Course: Roasted fillet of chalmar beef with caramelised onion potato cake, balsamic field mushrooms, butternut, veal jus and homemade béarnaise sauce

Cheese Board: A selection of local cheese with savoury biscuits and homemade chutney

Photographs © John Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2012

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Lynne's birthday at Burrata

Burrata has a very well-chosen wine list, but we chose to celebrate the occasion with a bottle of Chablis 2008 from our cellar, which went extremely well with the food, and pay the corkage of R65. Very lean, crisp and dry, this was better as a food wine than a wine to sip.

Burrata Puglia, the signature dish of the restaurant. A burrata is a fresh mozzarella ball that has cream inside it. This soft and creamy cheese was then dressed with a little olive oil and some chopped chives, Oryx dessert salt and served with melba toast. They are made by the Puglia company from Stellenbosch.

The other starter we shared was a tender and flavourful beef carpaccio with good tangy Klein Rivier grana padano cheese, parsley dressing and fried caper flowers. Not big enough was our comment!

An extra dish, sent to us to try by restaurant owner Neil Grant (you may remember him from Rust en Vrede): Soft and creamy risotto, perfectly cooked, topped with deep fried, crisp, shredded pork with cubes of granny smith green apple and surrounded by a sweet and sour currant vinaigrette. This dish really impressed us in its combination of textures and flavours and it definitely is one to return for. The pork, which resembled candyfloss, was actually quite crisp, caramelised and chewy and one of the best parts of the dish.

The wood burning pizza oven serves pizza non-stop and really warms the restaurant on a cold evening.

Fun lamps made from recycled bottles filled with led lights

A great way to store wood in circles of metal set on a window

A view of the spotless kitchen through their glass walled charcuterie cupboard

The interior of the restaurant is full of natural brick and warm wood surfaces This wall is made from recycled pieces of timber.

Lynne’s main of Porcetta of suckling pig roasted in the pizza oven, accompanied by herb mash, salted preserved onions and caramelised fried Brussels sprouts. This was the special of the evening and cost R130. The pork was beautiful, if very rich, but could have benefitted from a little longer in the oven. The potatoes and the really good jus were also great accompaniments. Lynne is not a fan of sprouts so John had one or two. We have not had onions prepared like this before. Only slightly pickled, but very salty and crisp, they need to be approached with slight caution, we felt, or you would need to drink a lot of water afterwards.

Johns’ main of pizza with Prosciutto, sliced parmesan reggiano, fresh mozzarella and rocket with a tomato base. The lovely crust is wood oven seared and the pizza was very enjoyable and filling.